Notting Hill Arts Club

Welcome to the bewilderingly cosmopolitan Notting Hill Arts Club. Time Out shows you around

By
Dave SwindellsPosted: Tue May 30 2006

From Sweden: JoJo and Malou

It's small, not quite perfectly formed, gets steamy in summer and
doesn't even have the best soundsystem in west London, yet the
enthusiasm and energy generated in the Notting Hill Arts Club make it
one of the finest clubs anywhere, a slim jim that punches way above its
weight.

It's also the best place in London to discover a world of
nightlife possibilities. Do you fancy being transported by the
samba-driven rhythms at Brazilian Love Affair? Want to explore the new
sounds and visions of Scandinavia at the Beach Club? Be inspired by a
medley of Mediterranean and Balkan beats and eats at Costa Urbana or
the unlikely marriage of Asian hip hop and Bollywood glitz at Bombay
Bronx?

These nights all happen in this W11 basement and there are
plenty of other internationally inspired sessions, too.

The
Notting Hill Arts Club (NHAC) is by no means an exclusively ‘global
grooves’ venue, though, as regulars at weekly events like Death Disco,
YoYo, Inspiration Information and Rota will testify. Yet it plays hosts
to a series of superb monthly events which are directly inspired by
cultures round the globe, filtered through the prism of twenty-first
century London and its nightlife.

‘If you’re running a club,’
observes the Arts Club’s founder, David McHugh, ‘the two things you
want are personality and a community, and when you’re running an
international night you’ve often got both to begin with. If you can
then appeal to the wider audience in London you may be on to a winner.’

Brazil: Patrick Forge and Lucy

whatever.

‘This
isn’t a worthy world music event,’ he says. ‘Our night has always been
based on the way that Brazilian music is appreciated in London, the
roots of what we do are in the sensuous, funky swing of the samba
rhythm and that’s the predominant groove, even when we’re playing the
newer, housier stuff.’

Bollywood: Nihal

The second birthday of Radio 1 DJ Nihal’s
Bombay Bronx happened during the same week in May, another mad-busy
night with the Rishi Rich Project playing live and the club hosting the
launch for Gautam Malkani’s book, ‘Londonstani’, which made it even
more of an Asian networking event than usual (see
www.myspace.com/bombaybronx). Even so, Nihal loves the fact that Bombay
Bronx is a hip hop night ‘where desi divas meet Asian rudeboys. I’m a
hip hop boy at heart,’ he declares, ‘so I didn’t want to run a
chin-stroking Asian underground night, I wanted a party.’ And it’s
worked; people queued for an hour and a half outside the second
birthday party. ‘Mind you,’ adds Nihal, ‘in the first few months I was
waiting an hour and a half just for someone to turn up.’

He’s
only half-joking. Most of the international events have taken many
months to establish their musical direction and for an audience to
discover them. Hardly any can claim to have been busy from day one,
which means a considerable commitment on the Arts Club’s part because
until they’re established they always lose money. ‘On the other hand,
when it works we get an event that can pack the club on a Tuesday,’
says McHugh, ‘and these nights draw so many different kinds of people
to the venue.’ It’s quite clear too, that McHugh and the rest of the
NHAC staff love the variety and ambition of their international events.

Greece: Alia and Paras

Costa Urbana does for the Mediterranean what the Beach Club does for
Scandinavia. Hosts and DJs Paras and Alia are Greek, but the night
features music and visuals from all around the Med, from flamenco funk
to bouzouki disco-pop, and Paras loves to connect with other beach-fun
cultures, too. Their next night, on June 18, ties in with a screening
of the Brazil vs Australia game (so guest DJ Cliffy of Batmacumba joins
them). Plus they’ll host the launch for the hotly tipped ‘Gypsy Beats
& Balkan Bangers’ CD compiled by Russ Jones and Basement Jaxx’ s
Felix Buxton, with German DJ Shantel and a live set by Emunah, a
seven-piece Jewish hip hop act (www.myspace.com/costaurbana). Now
that’s what we call a cosmopolitan mix.

There are many other
trans-national events at the NHAC including Martin Morales and John
Armstrong’s Futuro Flamenco, country cuts at The Honky Tonk and Max
Rheinhardt’s marvellous and maverick Radio Gagarin parties. This week
look out for funky reggae from Jamaica and the UK at Sweet Memory
Sounds on Tuesday and DJ Cliffy and Russ Jones’s superb Future World
Funk, back at the club on Saturday.‘Somebody once said to me that
the Arts Club is a bit like Cuba,’ laughs McHugh, ‘a relatively small
place with a big foreign policy, and that’s how it seems to me.’

Users say

Talk about Disappearing London! The Trustees of the Africa Centre has closed the centre, without sufficent notice to tenants as well as to members. They calim it would clsoed for 3 years to remove asbestos and rcarry out re-development work. But, on Monday 30th, a new tenant had moved into the ground floor shop space at 38 King Street WC1. Why are the trustees lying to us members. Why did the Arts Council lend Â£3,000,000 of our tax money to a consistently unaccountable, self-serving, undemocratic, nepotistic who avoids transparency and community engagement. I would like to know why these backward thinking people allowed such an important building to decay , under the leadership of Dr A Bing? Now, the trustees seemd to have all disappeared! Abysinnia Y

Yes, yes, yes, all of the above is ace, but for God's sake, the whole existence of the place is to keep the legendary (and soon to be octogenarian) DJ Derek coming back to Notting Hill. Its one of the best nights on the calendar, and criminally under-populated. Go see it immediately